State officials in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have encouraged Market Basket employees to apply for unemployment benefits, although they said that all benefit payments would be made on a case-by-case basis and required fact-finding.

In Massachusetts, part-time employees may be eligible for unemployment benefits if their hours are cut or reduced through no fault of their own, according to Dave Wilson, a partner at Hirsch Roberts Weinstein specializing in employment law. Depending on how much they made in the past year, workers who lose all their hours can receive about half their wages in unemployment benefits, Wilson said.

A spokesman for Market Basket’s top management said the company would not contest unemployment benefit filings made by part-time employees who had their hours reduced or eliminated.